THE FOOL DANCERS

 

		Among the main characters of the Kwakiutl Winter Ceremony appears the “Fool Dancer” (nulmal), who is distinguished by his particular violent behaviour: he throws stones against the onlookers, breaks or destroys every object he could put his hands on, in a very destructive and uncontrollable frenzy. But, on the other hand, the Fool Dancers are regarded as the custodians of the good performance of the ceremony and are charged with the function of punishing those who in some way injure, with their incorrect behaviour, the Cannibal Dancer (hamatsa).             Kwakiutl masked dancer personifying the Fool (Nulmal) (Photo E. S. Curtis, 1915)

 

The nulmal dancer  is initiated by mysterious spiritual beings, called atlasemk, who inhabit an island floating on the water of a lake, in the deep forest. The individual initiated by these beings returns from the forest in a proper state of “folly”. The essentially anti-social behaviour of the nulmal is described with great vividness in the legendary tale of the first initiation of a man by the  atlasemk. This man returned in the village exhausted and “fool” after his period of residence in the forest; from his nose a great quantity of mucus was dripping, and he swallowed up it and smeared it on his body; he urinated and defecated in the house and only after a certain time it was possible to bring him back to a normal demeanour (Boas 1897: p. 468-69). The long damp nose is a characteristic of the masks wore by the nulmal dancers, which show sometimes a prominent nose, sometimes a flat nose, reminding of an animal muzzle, and perhaps representing the monstrous characteristics of the atlasemk. Their filthiness and carelessness can be related to their destructive folly, since they are ways of behaving that are in contrast with the norms and customs governing the ordinary social life (Comba 1992: p. 121-125).

 

Kwakiutl Nulmal mask with a long nose (Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada)		Kwakiutl Nulmal mask with a flat nose (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)

 

The long nose is a characteristic of various masks with elements amenable to the “folly” or to a unrestrained and disorderly behaviour, appearing both in Native American ceremonies and in the folk masquerades of Europe. It is possible that this element could be regarded as a form of phallic symbolism, which could recall concepts of fecundity and generative power. This could be confirmed by a tale, widely diffused in Native North America, telling of a child who was born from the nasal mucus. In one of the most diffused variants, a bereaved woman for the disappearance of her daughter, who had been kidnapped by the Cannibal Woman, cries profusely and form her nose the mucus drips on the soil. It becomes to take a shape and turns into a child, who grows in a wonderful manner and shall be destined to become a great hero   (Thompson 1929: 10-191).